Twitter recants new blocked user policy hours after introducing it

After an enormous backlash from Twitter users on Thursday evening over a new blocking policy from the social networking firm, Twitter reversed course in mere hours to quell the outrage.

The controversy began on Thursday evening when Twitter announced that blocking users from interacting with you would no longer actually block users.

“When you block another user, we will not notify them that they have been blocked. If you block them, you will no longer see:

The user in your follower list

Any updates from that user in your Home timeline, including any of their Tweets that were retweeted by accounts you follow

Their @replies or mentions in your Connect tab

Any interactions with that user’s Tweets or account (i.e., favorites, follows or Retweets) in your Interactions or Activity tabs

You will, however, still see this user’s Tweets appear in Search and if you navigate to their profile page.

Note: If your account is public, blocking a user does not prevent that user from following you, interacting with your Tweets, or receiving your updates in their timeline. If your Tweets are protected, blocking the user will cause them to unfollow you.”

Most controversially, the blocked user would still be able to interact with your content, you just wouldn’t be alerted about it. That, to many, defeated the entire purpose of blocking people.

The block function has become important to victims of bullying, stalking and harassment as it allows people to block others from following their updates and using it against them. The new update undid those protections.

Late Thursday night, hours after the original announcement, Twitter recanted.

“We have decided to revert the change after receiving feedback from many users,” announced Twitter on Thursday night. “We never want to introduce features at the cost of users feeling less safe.”

Twitter added that users should also be concerned about retaliation from blocking abusive people if they live nearby, though.

“Some users worry just as much about post-blocking retaliation as they do about pre-blocking abuse. Moving forward, we will continue to explore features designed to protect users from abuse and prevent retaliation,” read the statement.

It’s hard not to see yesterdays Twitter block debacle as anything but a strong argument for diverse teams.